Possible Etrade Fraud

kjkent is correct however. Arbitration is a binding agreement that Etrade probably had the client agree to at account opening...And he also would need to prove negligence...ETrade Bank is a bank not a brokerage. I am not representing myself to be an attorney and I believe kjkent is an attorney and has been to law school and taken that horrible bar...


Quote from ENZO:

This is absolutely good advice, I know several partners in various downtown chicago law firms and they agree finding a similar case will help your case tremendously. Good Luck. Dont forget to report them to the BBB and anyone else you can think of. Cmon 4K. Pocket Change for them. You always hear the Brokers are out to rob us but this is ridiculous.

:D
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From Etrade site:

Phishing Alert – June 8, 2005
On June 8, 2005 a phishing attempt was detected targeting E*TRADE FINANCIAL Customers and other online consumers. With our continuous monitoring systems, we were able to detect this attack very quickly and are working with our security partners to shut down the fraudulent website.

Never respond to any emails of this kind. E*TRADE FINANCIAL will never request customer information using a non-secure web site. If you think you have been a victim of this phishing attempt please contact Customer Service immediately at 1-800-ETRADE-1.

About This Attack

The phishing e-mail message informs the recipient of a new alert in your personalized inbox and requests that you log in to your account to read it using a log on box embedded within the email.

If the User Name and Password entered and the "Log On" button clicked, the recipient will be temporarily directed to etradebiz.net.

This site will harvest the user name and password entered on the e-mail message. The recipient will be quickly redirected to us.etrade.com.

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/help?id=1220203000

The new RSA setup:

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/jumppage/viewjumppage?PageName=secureid_enter
 
Hi
Because $4k loss is really hurting you, I figure you are not a multimillionaire. So I thought you might benefit from my experiences.

I tried Etrade, Ameritrade, BrownCo, Datek (now Ameritrade) and Discover (now MorganStanley) and Schwab

Each of these experiences taught me a valuable lesson. Never to do business with them. I am very observant and act when I see smoke and dont wait for the fire.

Etrade: I logged in once and I saw somebody else's positions. Not even my account. I immediately closed the account. Paid them cancellation fee.

Ameritrade: They never gave me free trades that they promised. Red Flag!. Cancelled the account.

I really liked Datek better than others although they were not perfect but Ameritrade bought Datek and made it worse.

BrownCo: I noticed realtime quotes are actually 5 minute delayed. Account reps dont know the difference between closing account and account close-out fees. They still send me junk mail. One hell of an incompetency under 'Chase' umbrella!

Discover/MorganStanley: These people are completely indifferent to the fact that customers risk their money and want to have correct info before trading. MorganStanley thinks customers want to just lose money and thats why they trade.

CharlesSchwab: Seems to provide best fills but their online research is useless. Oh ya, and their customer service is crap too. All of that will change, so they say, if you open a wealth management account with them for a mil or so.

Sometime in the future, I expect Schwab and MorganStanley to just close doors on retail business. Others will hang around a little because their prices are low atleast.

One important thing: Almost all of these big guys will tell you "Stock market is risky, its not fit for everyone" if you complain why you lost $$$ in your account, why they charged wrong commission or why you dont even see realtime quotes!

Like any industry, you are better of doing business with small and mid-scale companies. Not the big ones. Honestly,people, dont open accounts with Etrade and Morgan simply because you fell in love with their TV commercials! Give your business to those who value it really.

Common sense and logic skills are usually missing at big brand names, although they go through rigorous 3-day $5000 customer service training.

I hope this information helps somebody. And I am truly sorry about your financial loss.
 
I believe he said the withdrawal was from his bank account. There are very detailed laws and federal regulations governing banking. They are fairly com[plex and difficult to decipher unless you are a lawyer working in the area. The first thing I would do is find out which regulatory body regulates ETrade Bank. It will be on their website. It could be the Federal Reserve or The Comptroller of the Currency. Call that agency and try to get a sympathetic staff attorney who will get you up to speed on the actual legal situation. If you get nowhere, call your U.S. Representative and both Senators offices and try to get them to help. Most politicians devote a lot of effort to this type of consituent service, and a call from them will get the agency to pay attention. Unless things have improved a lot recently, I am afraid you will find there is not a clear cut legal answer to liability in this situation, unlike for exmple if someone forges your name on a check where it is clear the bank is liable.

You will likely not find a competent attorney who will handle this case for a contingent fee. Too little money involved. Instead, I would try to access the various consumer help groups and a really helpful guy named Clark Howard, www.clarkhoward.com I believe, who has a consumer/finacne radio show. Also, I'd try to get your local TV consumer advocate involved. ETRrade fears bad PR more than lawyers.

I would be slow to accept ETrade's explanation that the fault was on your end. Certainly that is possible but it is also possible that they suffered some kind of intrusion or managed to lose customer data. There have been several recent news reports about confidential customer data being lost by banks and credit bureaus.

Goo dluck and let us know how it plays out.
 
Also might want to look at troubleshooter.com. They have a consumer help line, and if your story is interesting it may be addressed on the host's radio show. A bank that won't tell you where a fradulent wire out of your account went is right up their alley, I think.
 
Here is how the Etrade Fraud worked out. They called me this morning and said they talked to someone higher up. They said that since I gave Etrade consent to re-open my account AFTER I got back from vacation(after I scanned for spyware and got a new password), that I am responbsible for the loss. My reply was that the transfer occured before I re-opened my account so how am I reponsible. He said its my fault becuase I re-opened the account and did not notice the withdrawal until a few days later. It makes no sense to me. They are just giving me the runaround. I told them I will be bringing this to small claims court. He said if I bring this to court, their will be arbitration involved.

These guys are really being a bunch of aholes(pardon the french).

Also, for those who were inquiring, the transfer occured in my brokerage account.

My plan of action at this point is to send them a certified letter demanding my money be given back within 5 business days or I will bring them to small claims court. I will be leaving after this post to the police station to write up a report and then go to my lawyer with all the facts.

Also, Someone suggested fudiciary responsiblity through the NASD since it was my brokerage account. Would my circumstance fall under the Fudiciary Responsibility?

Thanks for the advice. ET has been very supportive in helping me with my pain in the ass dilemma.
 
Quote from tradingbug:

Here is how the Etrade Fraud worked out. They called me this morning and said they talked to someone higher up. They said that since I gave Etrade consent to re-open my account AFTER I got back from vacation(after I scanned for spyware and got a new password), that I am responbsible for the loss. My reply was that the transfer occured before I re-opened my account so how am I reponsible. He said its my fault becuase I re-opened the account and did not notice the withdrawal until a few days later. It makes no sense to me. They are just giving me the runaround. I told them I will be bringing this to small claims court. He said if I bring this to court, their will be arbitration involved.

These guys are really being a bunch of aholes(pardon the french).

Also, for those who were inquiring, the transfer occured in my brokerage account.

My plan of action at this point is to send them a certified letter demanding my money be given back within 5 business days or I will bring them to small claims court. I will be leaving after this post to the police station to write up a report and then go to my lawyer with all the facts.

Also, Someone suggested fudiciary responsiblity through the NASD since it was my brokerage account. Would my circumstance fall under the Fudiciary Responsibility?

Thanks for the advice. ET has been very supportive in helping me with my pain in the ass dilemma.
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TB,

Might also wanna look into the provisions of some rules made under the Patriot Act that make it binding for the broker to send or receive wired funds only from a bank account that has the same title as the brokerage account. If that is the case, ETrade could have wired the money out to your bank account only.

Good luck to you. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get a fair shake from these large corporations.:(
 
Howdy folks,
I saw the posting of "traderbug" about his Etrade account being compromised. The exact same scenario has happened to me. Last week, when I tried to access my account online, it was restricted. I called Etrade, and they say your account has been disabled since they found some unusual activity. They asked me to run virus scan software etc.

Fews days, later, they activated my account, gave me a new password. When I logged in, I found 2 "huge cash withdrawals" in the transaction history, (margin against my securities). Now my account shows huge negative cash balance. I immediately called Etrade and for the last 2 days they are saying we are investigating.

Any help/advice on this situation will be greatly appreciated.
 
Etrade...is gonna eat this.....big time...I feel bad for those of you with accounts there..if I were a reader and saw this and was unaffected, I would get my account closed and get outta' there...
 
I wish you all the luck in battling this outfit.

Incidentally, for some reason I reminded of
a story Kurt Russell (the actor) told about his days as a minor league ballplayer.

There was an umpire in the league who was rather disliked, and a player on Russell's team who really hated this umpire and often received unfavorable calls from this umpire. Now, the umpire's wife was known too be unfaithful and promiscuous with ballplayers. Russell's teammate hatched a plan to retaliate and humiliate the umpire. First, he slept with a woman who he knew had VD. After acquiring VD from the first woman, he slept with the umpire's wife, who contracted the social disease as well. A month or so later later, the umpire's wife called the player to complain about her condition. The player asked about her husband and whether he had any symptoms, and she replied yes.

The next time the player went up at bat with the umpire calling the game, he explained to the umpire exactly how he came upon his unfortunate circumstances.

Russell said that in the minor leagues, one had plenty of time to dream up such nefarious and delicious plots against enemies.

Traders have lots of time on thier hands.
 
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